Ukrainian (formerly
known as Ruthenian) language is my native. Below I am
presenting a few Ukrainain online dictionaries
(wordlists) with some basic Ukrainian vocabulary in
English transliteration on the front page.

Ukrainian, like some other Slavic
languages as Russian, Belorussian, Serbian, Bulgarian,
Serbian
and non Slavic as Kazakh, Kyrghyz, Uzbek, Tajik, Azeri,
Yakut, Chukchi, Karelian and many other peoples of former
Russian empire uses the Cyrillic alphabeth and is written in
Cyrillic letters. The closest languages it is similiar
are: Belorussian, Russian, Polish, Slovak and Old Church
Slavonic as well as to other Slavic languages such as
Czech, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croation, Macedonian and
Slovenian.

It belongs to Eastern group of Slavic (Slavonic)
languages and is the most ancient live Slavic language,
being the most closely related language to Old Slavonic,
the common language of ancestors of modern Slavs as well
as like Sanskrit it is one of the closest languages to
the common language of the first Indo-Europeans (Aryans).
Ukrainian has many words which are almost identical as in
Sanskrit, for instance Ukrainian "povi'trya"
(air) or "vohon'" (fire). It is the language
which was spoken in medieval Kievan Rus' kingdom (10 th -
13 th centuries). Russian is newer language and derives
from Ukrainian church language (called Church Slavonic).
Many of Ukrainian words you
will not find in any other Slavic languge and others such
as "kavun'" (water melon) or
"maydan'" (square) derive from Tatar and
Turkish for instance, because of historical influences.

Ukrainian is spoken mainly in Western part of Ukraine
(where it undergone some Polish influence) and in rural
areas of Eastern Ukraine. Eastern Ukrainian cities are
russified and mainly Russian speaking (for instance
although Ukrainians make up a quarter of the Crimean
population, only four of 582 Crimean schools (0.69
percent) are Ukrainian, and only one out of 392
publications on the peninsula is in Ukrainian. In the
Donbas, where Ukrainians constitute 50 percent of the
population, the proportion of pupils in Ukrainian
language schools is still only 10 percent) because of
shauvinist and imperialist language politics of imperial
Russia, where Ukrainian was considered as Little Russian
language and was prohibited to use as famous Tsar's
official Valuev said "Ukrainian language did not
exist, it does not exist and it will not exist"
Ukrainian is very well preserved in Western Ukraine
(where I come from) which had never been part of Russia
but of Austria and Poland and thus avoided russification.

During Soviet times it undergone further russification.
Persons who tried to protect the rights
to speak in Ukrainian were deported to Siberia. Those who
spoke Ukrainian instead of Russian were called and
treated as "bourgois nationalists". Thus,
Eastern Ukraine urban areas are completely russified: in
Ukraine, where Russians are the largest minority,
constituting 22 percent of the population, 33 percent of
pupils and students are enrolled in Russian- language
schools and universities (mostly in Eastern and Southern
Ukraine, since instruction in Western Ukrainian Schools
is exclusively in Ukrainian). In Ukraine, 1,193
newspapers are published in Russian
(largely in Eastern and Southern Ukraine), compared with
1,394 in Ukrainian (mostly in Western area of Ukraine).

Despite the sad past, nowadays, Ukrainian language is
going through a revival and it has become the language of
TV films, science, newspapers, computers and Internet,
being the only official language of 49 millions people
Ukraine.

FUTURE FORMS OF "BU'TY" (TO BE)
Ya budu - I will be
Ty bu'desh - You will be
Vin, Vona', Vono'/Tse bu'de - He, She, It will be
My bude'mo - We will be
Vy bude'te - You (polite form) will be
Vony bu'dut - They will be

PAGE CREATED BY ROMAN
ZAKHARII
(from Western Ukrainian town Berezhany,
in former Austrian province of Galicia, later Poland, USSR and
today Ukraine)

Page created on 24th of September, 2001, in Oslo, Norway
(where I worked and studied, doing two years MPhil in Medieval
Studies at the University of Oslo).
Updated on 17.07.2013.
I had graduated in history of Ukraine from the University of Lviv
in Ukraine and hold MA in Modern Central European history
(specializing in Polish Jewish historiography) from Board of
Regents of the University of State of New York (I did it at CEU
in Budapest). I would be interested to teach Ukrainian, Russian,
Soviet, Polish history / languages or Eastern European Jewish
history abroad. Please contact me, if you have any suggestions.
All copyrights reserved. See my CV.

If you have any comments you may write me at roman800@gmail.com
See my other pages on my hometown and surrounding area: